Crazy Fricking Shiz That Went Down
by SlittingCornorSmores
Summary: Crutchie finds a cat and decides that it's a good idea to keep it and not tell anyone about it. Let's just say that this story gets pretty hecking wild.
1. Chapter 1

**This is based of a true story...**

It was a perfectly normal day, and Crutchie was selling papes. Suddenly, in the middle of calling out some false headline, he felt a small nudge on his ankle. Startled, he got down on the knee of his good leg and saw that there was an animal rubbing it's face on him. A cat to be exact. That cat was an adorable little thing, despite the fact that he was shivering and was so thin that Crutchie could see his ribs poking out through his fur. He was a baby, too. Crutchie picked him up and stood, stroking his soft black and brown fur. He gently traced his fingers over the cat's ribs as he muttered, "You'se a tiny little thing, huh?"

The cat sneezed in response. Crutchie giggled, scratching the spot in between the cat's ears. "You're cute," Crutchie said. "I think I'm gonna keep you."

"You'se also shiverin' a lot..." Crutchie murmered. After thinking for a moment, he slipped the cat into his vest to protect the it from the cold.

Crutchie smiled down at the cat, who was looking up at him with round amber eyes. "I'se gonna take you back to the lodging house," Crutchie decided. "But if your comin' back to the lodging house with me, then you're gonna have to have a name."

Crutchie tried to think of a name that would suit this particular cat. He went through many different names in his mind until he stumbled across a good name for a cat. The name of Jack. Crutchie had always liked Jack's name, but he never thought that he would name a cat after Jack.

"Your name's Jack now," Crutchie said. The cat didn't react, just continued to goggle up at Crutchie.

Crutchie sighed. "You don't like that name, huh? Well, uhhh, what about Jackie? It's kind of like Jack, but it's different."

The cat meowed in what Crutchie thought of as approval. "Perfect!" Crutchie beamed. "Your name is Jackie now!"

As Crutchie sold the last of his papes, Jackie stayed in his vest the entire time. After he finished selling the last of his papes, he hurried to get back to the lodging house and tried to ignore all the squirming Jackie was doing in his vest. As he walked up the lodging house door, he looked down at Jackie and whispered to him, "You gotta settle down, okay? If one of the other boys are in there then we're done for."

Jackie gently kicked Crutchie in the stomach. "Stop it!" Crutchie giggled quietly. He opened the door, hoping that no one else was there.

"Hello?" Crutchie called out as he entered. No response.

He tried one more time, just to make sure. "Anyone here?"

Again, no response.

Crutchie pulled Jackie out of his vest and smiled at him. "No one's here, Jackie," He said. "We have the entire lodging house to ourselves."

Jackie rubbed the top of his head on Crutchie's thumbs, and Crutchie hugged him close.

 **Hhhhh wow cute.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for the reviews, brighteyes421 and Fanz4life!**

 **I have a two hour delay, so here's another chapter :))**

Crutchie sat down on his bed with Jackie in his arms. He scratched in between Jackie's ears, cringing as dirt appeared under his fingernails. "You'se disgusting, Jackie," he said, shaking his head and smiling.

Jackie purred up at Crutchie, making him giggle for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. "I ought to give you a bath, huh?" Crutchie muttered, picking Jackie's filth out from under his nails.

Crutchie stood up and picked Jackie up. "Come on," he said, making his way over to the washroom. In the washroom, he set Jackie down in a sink.

"I've heard that cats usually don't like water too good," Crutchie told Jackie, "but you'se disgustin' so you're gonna have to deal with it." He turned on the sink and made sure the water was the right temperature- not too hot but not too cold.

Fortunately, Jackie didn't seem to mind water. At first he was curious, carefully eyeing the lukewarm downpour, but his curiosity eventually got the best of him, and he started licking up the water and sticking his head under it. Jackie started running in little laps around the sink, splashing water around everywhere. Crutchie chuckled and held his hands up to his face in a failed attempt to keep from getting wet.

"Jackie, stop it!" Crutchie laughed at his cat, who was still sliding and running back and forth in the sink.

Jackie paused his tumbling just to look up at Crutchie and sneeze. Then he went back to flopping around in the sink. Crutchie sighed contentedly as he watched Jackie vigorously splash around.

Eventually, Jackie got tired. He slowed down and stopped, staring up at Crutchie. The water was tinted brown and silty now. "Well at least you'se somewhat clean..." Crutchie murmured, picking the wet, shivering cat out of the sink.

Crutchie brought Jackie back to his bed after wrapping him in a towel. Jackie seemed calm at first, but unfortunately for Crutchie, Jackie wasn't going to stay like that for long. Jackie started to squirm his way out of the towel, and before Crutchie knew it, the cat was running in circles all over Crutchie's bed, leaving wet paw prints and trails of water on the perfectly white sheets.

"Jackie!" Crutchie cried as he watched his cat. Jackie payed no attention to Crutchie, instead he continued to run around and drip all over the sheets.

Crutchie grabbed Jackie and once again wrapped him in the towel. "There's water EVERYWHERE," he exclaimed, holding on to Jackie tightly so he wouldn't escape. "I gotta cover this up now before someone else walks in and sees it."

Suddenly, as if on cue, Crutchie heard the front door to the lodging house open. Quickly, he grabbed blankets off of the bed that was next to him (which happened to be Jack's bed) and covered up his damp sheets. Next he took Jackie out of the towel, kicked the towel under his bed, then shoved Jackie into his vest. Crutchie finished hiding everything right when Jack walked in through the door, followed by Race.

"I told you he'd be here, Jack," Race grinned, gesturing to Crutchie.

Jack just nodded. He looked relieved. "Crutchie, what are you doin' here? We couldn't find ya!"

Crutchie prayed that Jackie would keep still. "Oh, uh, I was just tired so I came back here so I could sleep a little," Crutchie said. He knew it was a bad lie, in fact, it was an absolutely _terrible_ lie, but it was all that he could think of.

"We're my blankets warm enough for you?" Jack must've noticed his blankets on Crutchie's bed. Uh.

"Uh, yeah, they were great!" Crutchie could feel his face flush a dark shade of pink.

Jack rolled his eyes and laughed. "You're welcome," he said. "Anyways, we're headed on over to Jacobi's. Ya wanna come?"

If Crutchie did come with the boys to Jacobi's, then he would have to bring Jackie, which probably wouldn't turn out too well. He couldn't just leave Jackie at the lodging house either. "I-I'm still kinda tired. I think I'll pass."

"You feelin' okay, Crutchie?" Jack asked, a look of concern on his face.

Crutchie nodded quickly. "I'm okay, Jack. Just tired, that's all."

Jack shrugged, even though he still looked a little concerned. "If you say so..." he muttered. "See ya, Crutch. We'll be back soon." And with that, Jack turned around and walked out the door, Race following behind him.

After Jack and Race had left, Crutchie started feeling hungry. "I'm starving," he told Jackie, who he had taken out of his vest and placed in his lap.

Jackie meowed loudly. "You'se probably hungry too..." Crutchie said.

Crutchie thought for a moment. "Y'know, I think Jack has some food under his bed," he said. "He always keeps extra food, just in case one of us is hungry."

Crutchie picked Jackie up off his lap, and then set him on the bed. Then Crutchie got down and looked under Jack's bed. He reached his hand under there and pulled out a small box of saltine crackers. Crutchie gave a cracker to Jackie and smiled as he watched the little cat snarf it down. After giving himself one, Crutchie gave Jackie another cracker and watched him eat. Jackie practically inhaled all the crackers Crutchie gave him, and when the cat had finished, there were crumbs all over his face.

Crutchie attempted to clean the crumbs off Jackie's fur. "I'm not giving you another bath, Jackie!"

 **Reviews make me smile (wink heckin' wink).**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for the reviews, theititia, brighteyes421, and JimmyJimmyWhoop!**

 **Fanz4life, THE FACT THAT YOU CALLED CRUTCHIE A CRUTCHAMIN ROLL MADE ME DIE OF LAUGHTER- THANK YOU.**

 **This was edited at 3am so if there are mistakes, you know why.**

 **I ordered the Tuck Everlasting piano book, and it's not coming until Thursday, so I have to wait for that RIP.**

Jackie's fur and whiskers tickled Crutchie's cheek as he curled up next to Crutchie's face. Crutchie sighed with happiness and watched his cat drift asleep, his tiny, furry body rising up and down as he breathed. It was nightime, and all the other newsies were asleep. Though he squeezed his eyes shut as tightly as he could, Crutchie couldn't fall asleep. He couldn't stop thinking about Jackie and what he would do with him in the morning.

 _I usually wake up before all the other boys_ , Crutchie thought to himself. _I guess I'll just have to put Jackie in my vest again_.

"I need to sleep," Crutchie muttered softly. "If I sleep late, then I'll wake up late, and then I won't be able to hide Jackie in time."

Of course, sleeping was easier said than done. It took Crutchie a while, plus a whole lot of tossing and turning, before he finally dozed off with Jackie right beside him.

Crutchie awoke to the feeling of Jackie's paws pressing up against his cheek. He immediately sat up, making sure that none of the other boys were awake. Suddenly, there was violent snore from Jack in the bed next to Crutchie. Yep, everyone was definitely still sleeping. Crutchie grabbed his vest and slipped it on, then put Jackie in it. Right when Crutchie grabbed his cap and put it on his head, the morning bell rang and the other boys started to stir awake.

Crutchie looked down at Jackie, tacitly telling him to stay still and quiet. Next to him, Jack dramatically kicked his blanket off and sat up groaning. "I was having a good dreammmm," Jack whined, looking at Crutchie with sad eyes.

"All good things must come to an end, Jack," Crutchie said, bending down to put his boots on and willed Jackie to stay in his vest.

Jack simply rolled his eyes and stood up out of bed. Once Jack had gotten ready, he did his usual routine of yelling at the boys who were still asleep to hurry and get up. Then, the newsies went out to buy their papes. Crutchie didn't think that Jackie appreciated being stuck in his vest the entire time, but luckily Jackie stayed put while Crutchie was selling.

Hours later, Crutchie had finished. Since he had finished earlier than usual, he decided to go to the lodging house for something to eat, since he clearly wasn't going to Jacobi's with a cat in his vest. He took Jackie out of his vest on the walk back so the cat could get some air. When they arrived at the lodging house, Crutchie put Jackie back in his vest, just in case there was another boy in there.

Once inside, Crutchie got down on his knee and grabbed the last box of crackers out from under Jack's bed. Again, he felt guilty about stealing, but he needed some food and Jackie did, too. As he stood up, he saw a short figure walk into the room, and he nearly fell back to the ground when he saw that it was Romeo.

"Romeo! Wh-what are you doing here?" he sputtered out.

Romeo let out a high-pitched scream. "I WAS JUST-" He stopped as Jackie leaped out of Crutchie's vest and on to Jack's bed. "-CRUTCHIE, IS THAT A CAT?"

Crutchie dropped the box of crackers and grabed Jackie as fast as he could. "N-no!" Crutchie panicked as Jackie kicked his way out of his hands and almost fell, but he managed to catch him. "I-I mean, yes, it is a cat! Please don't asked why!"

The younger boy ran up to Crutchie and grabbed Jackie out of his grip. He squealed, "It's so cute! Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Boy..." Crutchie murmered, trying not to sound annoyed by the fact that Romeo just snatched Jackie without permission.

"Did ya name it yet?" Romeo asked, gently petting the cat."

"Yeah," Crutchie said, "I named him Jackie. Like Jack but different."

Romeo smiled, "Jackie's a good name for a cat- I like it. Does Jack know 'bout this?"

Crutchie shook his head. "No, he don't. You'se the only person who knows about Jackie."

Romeo's face lit up. "So Jackie's our little secret now?" he said eagerly.

"Sure, why not?" Crutchie smiled a little. "You is gonna have to promise to not tell anyone about the cat. Not even Jack."  
Rapidly nodding his head, Romeo said, "I promise!"

"Good. Now we should get back to selling papes, yeah?"

"Yeah!"

So the two boys went out and finished selling the rest of their papes together. As they were selling, Crutchie told Romeo all about how he found Jackie, took him in, gave him a bath and fed him.

"Jack was really worried about ya!" Romeo said. "When we was at Jacobi's he kept tellin' us that he should have stayed at the lodge with you."

Crutchie shook his head and smiled. "Jack thought I was sick when I insisted on staying at the lodge. I just wanted to stay with Jackie, that's all."

"So, when you plannin' on tellin' Jack?"

Crutchie thought for a moment. "Never," he said simply.

"You gotta tell him sometime!" Romeo exclaimed. Then, he ran and sold his last pape to a girl around his age that passed by them. "She was a cute one," he smirked.

Crutchie rolled his eyes and handed Romeo his last pape. "Go find another nice lookin' girl and sell my last one to her," he said.

After Romeo sold Crutchie's last pape, the two boys headed back to the lodging house. When they got there, everyone else was already back. Romeo immediately ran over to his brother Race and started chattering. Crutchie went over to Jack, who was sitting on his bed, and sat next to him.

"Hi," Crutchie looked up at Jack and smiled.

"Hey, Crutch," Jack smiled back.

"You okay?"  
"Yeah, I'm okay. You?"

All of a sudden their conversation was interrupted by a loud shout coming from across the room. "YOU WHAT?" It was Race shouting at Romeo, for reasons unknown to the other newsies.

Jack stood up. "What'd Rome do this time?" he called.

"NOTHING!"

"Seriously, what'd the kid do?" Specs piped up.

"I ALREADY TOLD YOU. NOTHING."

"Tell usssss," Albert begged.

"NO, SHUT UP, ALBERT. CRUTCHIE, GET OVER HERE."  
Crutchie swallowed and stood up. He walked all the way across the room to Race. "What do you need?"

Race didn't say anything, he just reached in to Crutchie's vest and pulled Jackie out.  
"Race, what the hell?" Crutchie hissed in frustration.

"Sorry, I just had to make sure Romeo was tellin' me the truth when he said that you had a CAT in your vest. If you couldn't tell already, he can't keep secrets at all."

"Yeah, I noticed," Crutchie grumbled. "The cat's name is Jackie, by the way."

"Jackie?" Albert peered over Race's shoulder and when he saw Jackie, he whispered, "That's a cat!"

"Great observation, Albert," Finch muttered, poking his head into the conversation.

"I mean, it's a cute cat," Tommy Boy said quietly.

"Guys, does Jack know about this?" Specs asked softly.

"Did someone say my name?" Jack called out, standing up and walking toward the huddled group of boys.

"Dammit, hide Jackie!" Race whispered fractically as he stuffed Jackie back into Crutchie's vest.

Jack made it over and looked at all of them, his eyebrow raised. "What the hell are you guys doin'?"

Crutchie put on one of his classic smiles. "Oh, nothin'! Romeo was just bein' an idiot, that's all." That earned a glare from Romeo.  
Jack studied the boys for a good five seconds before turning around and walking off.

Crutchie pulled Jackie out from his vest again and sighed with relief. "Okay, fellas, you all have to help me. Jack can never know about Jackie- ever. We all gotta hide him."  
"I mean, Jack's gonna find out sometime, but this'll be fun while it lasts," Race said. "So does everyone agree to not say a word about Jackie?"

A chorus of agreement rose up, and Crutchie smiled. Jack would never have to know.

 **R &R!**


	4. Chapter 4

**SORRY ABOUT THE HIATUS, WHOOPS. I REFUSE TO BE TWENTY ONE PILOTS. And thank you for the reviews, Cottonballpoofs, brighteyes421, UnofficialFansie, Fanz4life, and Guest! Y'all are great.**

Hiding Jackie wasn't the easiest thing in the world. After all, the newsies weren't a very organized group. But their persistent teamwork was helpful, and they  
managed to keep Jackie a fairly well hidden secret from their leader.

The boys had their system. A randomly selected newsie would take care of Jackie for an hour in the morning while they sold their papes. Then, after their hour was  
up, that newsie would hand Jackie off to someone else. After their hour was up, they'd pass Jackie on to someone completely different. And so on, and so on. At the end of the day, though, Jackie always ended up with Crutchie. Crutchie was Jackie's favorite person, and he would only settle down in Crutchie's vest. The boys had tried to put Jackie in other places such as pant pockets, hats, and bags, but Jackie hated it. He would whimper and mew until he was taken out. Maybe it was Crutchie's warmth, or the fact that Crutchie had first put Jackie there when he found him; the boys didn't know. Jackie just had to be in Crutchie's vest by the end of the day.

They took care of Jackie, too, feeding him whatever scraps they could find and playing with him when Jack wasn't around. If Jack did happen to come around while Jackie was out, though, the boys had an emergency plan. They kept this system going for two whole weeks until all hell broke loose.

 **.**

Fat drops of rain could be heard hitting the window, and a loud clap of thunder shook the lodging house, causing Jackie to let out a distressed mew from inside Crutchie's vest. Crutchie, who was sitting on the floor by his bed, looked down at the cat, his glance alone shushing him. The other newsies hung around the bottom floor of the lodge, talking amongst themselves, playing card games, and being obstreperous. They all watched Crutchie from the corners of their eyes, just to make sure Jackie wasn't flipping around because of the storm outside. Jack WAS upstairs painting, but when the sound of a door closing flollowed by the sound of someone coming down the stairs, the newsies realized that Jack wasn't planning on staying cooped up forever. Jackie, you'd better not move.

When Jack arrived at the bottom floor, Crutchie tensed up, drawing in a sharp breath and willing Jackie to stay put. "Hey, Crutch," Jack said; Crutchie could feel Jack looking at him, "I, uh, wanna talk to ya."

Crutchie grabbed his crutch from the ground next to him and stood up, his free arm craddling Jackie through his vest. He walked over to Jack, and Jack lead him to a corner.

"Ya seem tense," Jack commented as Crutchie shrank into the corner.

Crutchie pressed his lips together in a tight smile and nodded. "What did ya wanna tell me?"

"Whatcha guys hidin' from me?"

Crutchie's smile wavered slightly as he looked up at the taller boy. "Whaddya talking about?" he asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible (which he was pretty good at).

Suddenly, Crutchie felt Jackie squriming around. _No, not now_ , Crutchie thought as nervousness caused his breath to hitch.

Jack frowned. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

As if on cue, Jackie decided to leap out of Crutchie's vest and on to the ground. This caused Jack to jump back and let out a loud cry of "WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL?"

Crutchie blinked and screamed, "GUYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYSSSSSSSS, CAT IS OUT."

All of the boys leaped to their feet and began to play out their emergency plan. They ran, backflipped, and cartwheeled over to Crutchie and Jack, limbs flailing. Once Race snatched Jackie and shoved him back down Crutchie's vest, the boys began to climb on top of each other, building a baricade around Crutchie and pressing him farther into the corner. "SHIELD THE CAT!" Race ordered as the newsies safely cornered Crutchie and Jackie.

"Seriously?" Jack rolled his eyes and pushed the baricade of boys aside, causing them to topple over and fall to the ground. "That's a _cat,_ " he said, looking at Jackie who had stuck his head out of Crutchie's vest.

Crutchie nodded nervously with a quick glance down at Jackie.

"He's cute," Jack observed. The newsies sat on the ground muttering quietly to each other, eyes fixed intently on Jack.

Jack gast a glance at the boys. "What are ya guys starin' at me for?"

"Sooo, can we keep him?" Romeo asked slowly.

Jack shrugged. "I don't care. Sure."

"What?" Race stood up. "Ya mean it?"

"Yeah?"

The boys erupted into fervorous screams and cheers, laughing and giving each other relieved hugs until Crutchie hissed, "Shhhhhh, guyyyyys, calm dowwwnnn. Jackie's getting nervous!"

What he said was true - Jackie was letting out slightly distressed mews and glancing back and forth between all the newsies. Jack didn't seem to acknowledge the cat, though. "What? I'm not nervous?" Jack looked at Crutchie, his face slapped with a look of confusion.

Crutchie mentally facepalmed and brough Jackie out of his vest. He started to cradle the cat with one arm. "Not you, you idiot," Crutchie rolled his eyes at Jack. "The cat. I named him after you."

Jack sighed, but flashed a small smile. "Oh. Thanks, Crutch."

And so they kept the cat.

 **Aaaaaand that concludes the story. Hope you enjoyed!**


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